A Couples' Argument
by Nairobi-Harper
Summary: Rhonda and Curly argue over which house to buy: the smaller or the larger.


Author's note: What is this, you ask? Has Nairobi-Harper actually succeeded in getting a one-shot up? Is this a dream come true? Yes, yes it is.

All joking aside, this one-shot was a request from my friend LailaRules. She'd switched her request a little while ago, and I hope she enjoys! :)

I've been wanting to write this one-shot as a setup for my story "The Shortman Family" for quite a while. Yes, Rhonda, Curly, and their child (sorry, I only plan on them having one as of now,) will, of course, appear in that story, but you'll just have to wait and see who they are :)

Curly is also called two different names in this story - the one he's called for most of the "Hey Arnold!" series, and also his real name - Thaddeus.

I'd just like to quickly note that if the ending feels sort of misplaced, that's because I was having troubles ending this story, hence one of the reasons for the long, long, wait. In other words, if you don't understand the ending, it's fine - I don't either.

Then, there's also the fact that I had troubles coming up with a title for this, I've been working on a lot of stuff for my story "The Shortman Family," I've been sleep deprived for a long time, etc. Basically, there are plenty of reasons why it took me so long to get this one released, but I'm glad to finally be getting it uploaded.

Also, if you're wondering, no, Rhonda, Curly, and their daughter-who's-name-I-will-not-reveal-until-she-is-introduced do not actually live in Hillwood. Actually, they live in Redmond, but their daughter still goes to school in Hillwood. (Hillwood is based off Seattle, and Redmond is a city in Washington.)

Additionally, yes, Rhonda and Curly are married, but Rhonda still likes to go by her surname

Disclaimer: I do not own Hey Arnold. This glorious television show belongs to Craig Bartlett, and the only thing that I really own is this story.

 **A Couples' Argument**

It was a bright, beautiful, sunny day in Hillwood. Many people in the city were feeling rather happy on this day - after all, why shouldn't they? The birds were singing, the grass was green as ever, and it didn't seem that the sun had ever shone so bright. Sadly, the previous days had been overheated, causing many headaches among the citizens of Hillwood, along with a lot of procrastination and boredom. However, one couple in particular had been feeling very happy lately. The names of this couple were none other than Thaddeus and Rhonda Gammelthorpe.

The two had recently been very excited ever since they'd learn that they'd be having a baby. For the past few months, there had been plenty of signs suggesting that Rhonda had gotten pregnant, all of which led up to them having gone to the doctor for some sort of extra confirmation after Rhonda had taken a pregnancy test.

The doctor had confirmed for them recently that yes, Rhonda was pregnant. However, while it was far too early to know the baby's gender, that didn't mean it was too early to begin looking at homes for their child.

The joyful pair had received a **huge** loan of $2,500,000 from Rhonda's parents, Buckley and Brooke Lloyd, once they had heard that their only daughter would be giving birth to a child in the next few months. Of course, Rhonda and Thaddeus had decided to use this money wisely; they were already making enough with their daily careers to afford basic baby things, so they had begun to think bigger. In the end, they had decided that, considering they could already afford more or less everything that they needed, it would be nice for their baby to live in an actual house.

That was exactly why, on this beautiful summer day, Rhonda Gammelthorpe and her husband Thaddeus (also referred to as Curly,) sat on the black couch of their apartment, searching online for homes in Redmond.

By now, the couple had been searching for the past forty minutes, and as of far, they had been unsuccessful in finding any sort of home.

Rhonda groaned. "Thaddeus, I'm starting to think that we should finish this search tomorrow. It must be at least forty minutes since we'd started searching now."

Her husband shook his head. "We should at least wait it out for another five minutes. I'm sure that we'll find something soon."

Although she hadn't exactly trusted his judgement, it was just three minutes from then when she discovered that he may have been rightt. They'd been searching through the website for forty-three minutes by then when they saw one home listed for $1,115,000.

The home wasn't anything that could be showed off in particular - there was only one pair of stairs, and the upstairs rooms weren't big enough to play around in. The best part about it was probably the lower room - it was spacely, and was large enough to cover four rooms in one!

After they checked out the profile of it, Thaddeus smiled. "I think that we should get this one."

Rhonda was about to agree, before she realized that there was just one more home that they hadn't checked out. The home was listed for $1,500,125, and judging by the price, Rhonda could tell that they hadn't yet looked at it. "Oh, Thaddeus, wait, we forgot one."

He raised an eyebrow. "We did?"

She nodded as she clicked on it. Once she had, she raised an eyebrow, grinning. "Hmm… newly-painted, a built-in fireplace…" Rhonda clicked on an available picture of one of the rooms. "Wow, this room is huge!" Thaddeus nodded as she continued to look at pictures of the rooms with awe. "Oh, this room would just be perfect for a baby…" Finally, once she'd gone through all of the pictures, Rhonda had come to a decision. Smiling, Rhonda made her statement: "I say we take a look at this one, Thaddeus."

He would agree with her, and she knew it. After all, how could he not? This home not only had more than

two acres of a beautiful lawn and around nine **very** spacely rooms, but was also newly painted and even came with a fireplace! This would be the perfect home for their family, and Rhonda knew that if she liked it, Thaddeus would certainly like it, too.

That was why, much to her surprise, he actually disagreed… openly.

Curly had, after about thirty seconds of hearing Rhonda swooning over how _big_ and _beautiful_ their home would be, expressed his own thoughts. "I say we check out the smaller one." His loved one had to keep herself from screaming.

'Even with his medication the man is still insane!' she thought. 'What's given him such a preposterous idea?'

She scowled. "Why should we check out the smaller one, Thaddeus? The other one's a lot larger, we can afford it, _and_ it'll attract more people!" Rhonda rolled her eyes. "I simply don't know _what_ gave you an idea as strange as actually buying the _smaller_ one…"

Of course, somehow, just _somehow_ , her husband _still_ didn't understand why not to argue with _she,_ Rhonda Wellington Lloyd, and went on with his argument. "We could have more money for vacation, extracurricular activities, and a lot of other stuff, too." He then suddenly grinned. "Plus, we wouldn't need _that_ much space unless you plan on us having _more_ than one child, my pet."

Blushing, Rhonda rolled her eyes once again. "Well, I don't know about you, but so far, my plan is to have only one child, Curly…" She smiled a bit. "Not that I'd be repulsed by the idea of a second child, but, mind you, I think I'm only patient enough for _one_ …" Realizing that, as of far, she was losing this argument, Rhonda cleared her throat in an attempt to regain her composure. " _Anyway_ , Curly, as I was _going_ to say before you brought that idea up, why would we need more money for all that stuff?" She scoffed. "You seem to be forgetting that my parents are rich."

It took Curly less than thirty seconds to return with _another_ argument. "Your parents are rich, I can't deny that, but you do have to admit, dear, that not even they would've bought a home as big as the one that you're trying to suggest." He noticed the murderous look in her eyes at the moment, but also knew that she'd never actually _hurt_ him, leading Curly to continue. "Along with that, as much as I appreciate them giving us such a large loan, you also have to admit that this loan's not going to last forever, and it'll last for an even shorter time if we buy this house that you want us to." By now, considering the fact that his wife was _seething_ with anger, it likely didn't help much that he grinned before continuing on. "I also find it quite interesting, darling, how you never denied that there might be a little too much unnecessary space in our new home." He continued to stare at her with a small little grin on his face as she continued to mentally curse.

It was nearly as _soon_ as he'd finished up with his side of the debate that she'd known she had lost. The idea sounded preposterous, considering that she was, after all, Rhonda Wellington Lloyd, but, she supposed, even the best of the best _had_ to be wrong sometimes, didn't they?

And so, it was for that exact reason that after about a minute of the two having a staring competition, she sighed and said with a bit of attitude, "...You win this one, Curly."

And, as he always did, Curly had grinned and replied, "That's Curly for ya."


End file.
